2,800-year-old Siberian tomb reveals 1,000 cannabis seeds and evidence of ritual intoxication

Researchers studying a 2,800-year-old princely tomb in southern Siberia have found about 1,000 cannabis seeds alongside preserved human hair containing chemical traces associated with cannabis intoxication. The discovery, reported by Phys.org, ScienceAlert and Discover Magazine, suggests that people buried in the Scythian-era tomb may have used cannabis for its psychoactive effects as part of elaborate funerary rituals involving sacrificed horses and, most likely, human sacrifices.The tomb, known as Tunnug 1, lies in the Republic of Tyva in southern Siberia.

An international research team led by archaeologist Gino Caspari of the University of Bern and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology published the findings in the journal Science, describing them as the oldest directly dated archaeological evidence of cannabis being used as an intoxicant. Read more details about this discovery, as per the reports, here:A royal tomb in the Valley of the KingsTunnug 1 is a huge burial mound, or kurgan, measuring roughly 140 metres across.